President Obama Speaks to Business Leaders on Immigration Reform at the White House

Earlier this week, on June 24, 2013, President Barack Obama spoke to a group of business leaders at an Immigration Reform Roundtable in the Roosevelt Room.

Here is a transcript of his remarks, and also a video of the conversation.

Find out more about the Obama Administration's polices on immigration.

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US Secretary of State John Kerry Comments on President Kennedy's Historic Visit to Ireland Fifty Years Ago

President Kennedy in Ireland, 1963

(Photo Courtesy of JFK Library) 

 

John Kerry, US Secretary of State, has published his reflections of President John F. Kennedy's historic visit to Ireland in June 1963.  In an essay titled The Legacy of JFK: Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of His Visit to Ireland, Secretary Kerry remarked on "the spirit and idealism of the Kennedy years" and what that meant to his generation growing up in the Cold War era.

"I particularly remember watching the news on a little black and white television set as America’s first Catholic President returned to the land of his heritage to celebrate a moment of pride on both sides of the Atlantic and a remarkable reminder that the United States was a nation of immigrants focused on the future but deeply proud of its roots," Kerry says.

This past week, Caroline Kennedy and her family returned to Ireland to retrace her father's visit fifty years ago, stopping in New Ross, County Wexford, from where the Kennedy family originated, and Bruff, County Limerick, where the Fitzgeralds came from.

For more information on President Kennedy, visit the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, located in Boston, Massachusetts. 

President and Mrs. Barack Obama Address Youth Assembly in Belfast, Northern Ireland

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama addressed an assembly of young people at the Belfast Waterfront in Belfast, Northern Ireland today.

The president is attending the G-8 Summit Meeting in Belfast this week, while Mrs. Obama and her daughters are visiting Northern Ireland and the  Republic of Ireland.

Mrs. Obama talked about leadership and the importance of "honesty, hard work and a commitment to education."

President Obama talked about the peace process and the challenges facing a new generation of young people all around the world.

"You must remind us of the existence of peace -- the possibility of peace.  You have to remind us of hope again and again and again.  Despite resistance, despite setbacks, despite hardship, despite tragedy, you have to remind us of the future again and again and again," President Obama said.


Read the entire transcript here.

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